With the ever-growing, world-wide emphasis upon energy conservation, much attention is now being devoted to the provision of means by which solar energy can be exploited efficiently and practically, to satisfy a substantial proportion of normal heating demands. In response, numerous active and passive solar collector systems have been proposed, both as an integral part of a house or other building and also for retrofit installation in existing structures.
Such retrofit systems, which are generally either window units or outside-mounted modular panels, are normally of limited dimensions to enable facile installation, and are not therefor very efficient sources of supplementary heat. The window units must, of course, be sufficiently small to fit within the opening of a standard window; moreover, they typically have attached accordian-pleated side panels which expand to the window frame, through which thermal energy transfer, and consequential substantial heat loss, readily occurs. Normally, the exterior modular units are shallow rectangular panels that do not exceed three feet in width and seven feet in length, thus providing a maximum effective heat absorption and energy conversion area of about twenty-one square feet.
Active and passive solar collector modules, made for integration into new constructions and for replacement of existing wall sections are, like panels of sheetrock, plywood, etc., produced in standard 4'.times.8' dimensions. While these modules provide approximately 50 percent more effective surface area than does a 3'.times.7' unit, as far as is known such a module has not heretofore been utilized successfully for retrofit exterior mounted installation as an active system, due to the difficulty of establishing air flow communication therewith into the living space.
More particularly, in such a unit the inlet and outlet openings for air are generally provided closely adjacent one of its ends. Because the standard house wall height is eight feet, this presents little difficulty in the case of a panel that is only seven feet long. However, when the panel is eight feet in length, direct air flow connections through the wall are either impossible, or are made only with considerable effort and structural modification, due to the presence of sills, plates, and the like, at the bottom and top of the wall structure. Moreover, for practical and aesthetic reasons it will often be desirable to locate the room air flow register at a position other than in direct alignment with the openings in the collector panel; for example, this may be necessary to avoid interference with radiators or baseboard heating units, or to prevent blockage by drapes, furniture, etc.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a novel active solar heating system which is adapted for retrofit installation in a building with minimal structural modification thereto, which system utilizes a solar collector module of a standard size and relatively large effective surface area for difficult heat recovery and utilization.
It is also an object of the invention to provide such a system which permits facile placement of the room register to accommodate practical and aesthetic factors.
It is another object of the invention to provide a system of the foregoing nature which is compact and self-contained, and which can be produced and installed quickly, easily, and relatively inexpensively.